Community Engagement 2009 in Review

As thousands of students, teachers, and staff enjoy winter break and many families finalize their plans for the holiday season, I wanted to share a few highlights with you on the Alliance’s community engagement effort.

Through our initial 10-month effort and outreach the community engagement task force has:

· Increased our understanding of the current educational issues and community organizing efforts in Seattle
· Created a community engagement strategic plan for the 2009 – 2010 school year
· Began community dialogues on improving the graduation rate with over 300 participants
· Supported community conversations on teacher quality

This work is truly a collaborative effort between the Alliance and the broader community. I want to extend a huge thanks to some of our community based partners including Seattle University, Youth Ambassadors, City of Seattle Mayor’s Youth Council, YMCA of Greater Seattle, West Seattle High School, Garfield High School, Urban League Scholars, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, the Mockingbird Society, Rainier Beach Community Empowerment Coalition, Refugee School Impact Grant Partnership, and WAPI Community Services for their involvement in our engagement. Each of these partners has provided us the opportunity to interact and create a meaningful conversation on student academic success. We have gained tremendous insight on the concerns of the public, but there is still plenty of work to be done.

Our community partners are committed to hosting dialogues, informing and enhancing our outreach, and even planning the upcoming Youth Education Summit over the next few months.

It is our hope that efforts like the Education Summit will ignite Seattle youth and adults in community engagement and empowerment around key issues of student academic achievement, education reform, and social justice.

In the next six months we have made the commitment to:

· Continue community dialogues on graduation rate (at least 15 events district wide)
· Use school performance data to drive our community dialogue
· Coordinate the work of a Youth Advisory Council to host the Seattle Youth Education Summit
· Complement the work of the Seattle Public Schools Family and Community Engagement effort through participation with the School Family Partnership Advisory Committee
· Continue to share information with and between our community partners

As the Alliance moves forward with this work, it will be important to consider opportunities for program sustainability and effectiveness. We are confident that this campaign will be a tremendous benefit to the Seattle community.

I encourage you to lend your support, comments and ideas on our community engagement efforts. Our dialogue is even more powerful with your voice and action at the table. Happy Holidays to you and your families. See you in 2010!

-Solynn McCurdy, Community Engagement Manager

School and Community Partnerships

Here's a quick update on our work.

As I mentioned in a previous post, we are working with community partners and SPS staff to explore the potential of a Community Schools initiative here in Seattle. There are already two schools within SPS that are recipients of a federal grant to implement a community schools model, and the leaders of those programs are closely involved in our work of looking at this on a larger scale.

I mentioned previously how many resources we have in our city, and although there are some exceptions, most are not delivered in a coordinated structure. Last year we did an initial piece of work, identifying approximately 300 providers. We surveyed those and about 50% responded and shared where they are in schools across Seattle. The results of that survey were not comprehensive, but showed a lot of resources for students. You can find that information here: www.alliance4ed.org/community/csp.htm

We are building on that previous work and have now identified upwards of 500 potential service providers for students in SPS. A new survey has gone out and we will follow up in a variety of ways to put together as comprehensive of a picture as we can.

Over the next couple months we'll share this on our Web site and through community partners. Stay tuned...

Karen

Strengthening Seattle Partnerships for College Access and Success

College Access and Readiness has recently become a significant component of the Alliance for Education's program offerings. Since the spring of 2009, we have been convening a network of SPS staff, and college access providers and representatives which we refer to as the Seattle College Access Network (SCAN). This network is committed to ensuring expanded, and more efficient, delivery of college-preparation programs for students in our target populations including first generation college-goers, low-income and students of color. Participants of this network include and not limited to:

• Seattle Public School System
• Local Education Fund - Alliance for Education
• The Funding community - Collegespark, Gates Foundation, College Success Foundation
• Higher ed institutions - University of Washington, Seattle Community College Districts, Seattle Pacific
• Policy and Advocacy groups - Seattle Education Access, League of Education Voters, and El Centro de la Raza

We recognize the vastly different opportunities and resources available to students across the city and our network commits to targeting this population that has not been well served in getting the resources they need to obtain postsecondary education opportunities. We define all college access to include trade school, technical college, two- and four-year colleges, and other educational choices.

This past year, the network primarily focused on building sustainable relationships within the network and beginning to build a structure within SPS high schools and middle schools that have the highest population of low-income and students of color.

Our four key areas of work include:

• Building capacity with SPS
• Identify and engage community partners
• Build a sustainable structure including metrics for collaboration between schools, community organizations, and families in supporting all students for college access and success
• Push areas of policy that have an impact on the success of this effort

Since the network began, all providers have been energetic, enthusiastic, and committed to the network mission. It is apparent that we are resource rich around the issue of college access and readiness. Coordinating our efforts in a way where we can eliminate inefficiencies and work in concert will be the task ahead.

We welcome your thoughts and participation!!

Mark Yango, AFE

Submit your Responses - NCTQ report

This week we sent a copy of the NCTQ report to all teachers in Seattle Public Schools. We truly want to hear from you. Please click on comments below to provide feedback and participate in the online conversation.

More about the Alliance - Why we are involved in the teacher quality discussion.

I want to continue the conversation about our priority areas of work at the Alliance for Education. In a past blog I outlined four priority areas:

• Community Schools
• College Access (includes all post-secondary educational opportunities)
• Support for Teachers and Teacher Quality
• Community Engagement

For this blog I want to share a bit more information about our work in supporting teachers and teacher quality, adding to information previously posted. During the past several months, we have been working with Seattle Public Schools, parents, and a variety of community organizations and individuals to engage in a dialogue about how we sustain strong teaching in every classroom.

The primary goal of this work is to help Seattle Public Schools support strong instruction throughout the city. A system that nurtures new teachers, supports continuous learning, and encourages strong educators to work in high needs school.

As you may know we contracted with the National Council on Teacher Quality to conduct a report on how Seattle is doing in recruiting and retaining effective teachers. We held a public event, and you can read the summary in a previous post. The recommendations that resulted from this report are listed in a link on our web site and we have created a summarized document here: http://www.alliance4ed.org/docs/NCTQ%20Recommendations.pdf

Here are the activities we are currently engaged in:
· With the help of an in-kind grant, we sent a copy of the full report to every teacher in SPS. We included a cover letter stating that although we contracted with NCTQ we don’t agree with all the recommendations, but believe it’s a great opportunity to start the conversation.
· We invited teachers to provide feedback as to their areas of priority for this work. For example, is compensation the most important issue? Evaluation? Tenure?
· Community groups are having the same conversations and sharing with us priority areas for us to focus our efforts.
· We will be conducting teacher focus groups to ask additional questions.
· We are compiling responses from all of these activites and we will ultimately share all this information with the district partners, the union and the greater community.

We know that teachers are the most important component of a classroom. They are there to teach our children and are a vital part of student academic growth. But they are also part of a child’s human growth from helping dry tears in Kindergarten to connecting students to college access resources in high school. It’s a tough and complex job and we’ve got to figure out a way to support and provide partnership so we can really all serve all students in the city.

As a parent, my two daughters have overall had great experiences in Seattle Public Schools. My eldest daughter’s first connection to school in Seattle was at Lafayette Elementary after we moved back here from Portland. She had an incredible teacher, one who truly paved the way for her to love school and learning from an early age. Graduating from college this month, she still loves learning. Being a first-generation college graduate, who received my degree much later in life, I’m pretty excited about that.

And I want that for all students in our city.
Karen

Let me share more about the Alliance

There have been several questions and comments about our work. I would like to share with you some of our priority areas of work, and will do so over the next few weeks. You may or may not know that over the past few years the Alliance has gone through a variety of structural and philosophical changes, from what our priorities are, to how our board and committees are structured (and everything in between). We've changed our staffing structure and worked to strengthen relationships, both with internal SPS staff, and with external community, business and civic partners.

We are now moving forward on specific initiatives. In addition to securing private resources to support the district’s strategic plan, our staff also focuses on other areas of priority. I’ll share more information about each of those, but the four we will talk about primarily are:
· Community Schools

· College Access (includes all post-secondary education options)

· Support for Teachers and Teacher Quality

· Community Engagement

I’ll start with Community Schools. Over the past year and a half, the Alliance has been working in partnership with about a dozen other community-based organizations to explore the idea of coordinated, comprehensive services for students based upon a through needs assessment.

We are resource-rich in Seattle, with literally hundreds of community, non-profit, and government organizations working to support students in our schools. Although there are pockets of coordination, often around specific areas of service, there is not a district-wide structure in place to build strong partnerships between these organizations and schools, limiting our collective ability to serve as many students as possible.

Over the past several months, this conversation grew from just coordinating services to exploring the idea of Community Schools.

So now at the Alliance we are working with partners to explore this concept. Although defined differently in different areas, a community school is generally one that is open for extended days, say from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and provides services ranging from academic supports to family support. At a very early stage, we are looking primarily at the following categories: Academics, Early Learning, Arts, Recreation, Health, Social/emotional support, Family support, and resources for College Access.

We’ve looked at models across the nation, and you can find some really interesting (and varied) examples at this site: www.communityschools.org. We’ve seen and learned many interesting things, including one in Lincoln, Nebraska. At one community school there, they have set up a WIC program right in the building. Parents were developing early, trusting relationships with schools. This transitions to early learning and students are more prepared when entering Kindergarten.

One thing that became very clear is that a community schools initiative needs to grow from the community within which it exists. So we would need to build this collectively.

This is a very large concept, not one easily structured or implemented. And there are many questions that would need to be answered before we could effectively move forward with this work. But we're asking the questions and exploring possibilities.

I could talk endlessly about community schools because such potential exists in bringing together the internal strengths in schools (teaching and learning) with the external resources that students and families need. But I can't do that here (back to work) but as always invite you to call or meet if you have any questions. (206-205-0333). www.alliance4ed.org.

Karen

Alliance President and CEO Patrick D'Amelio Steps Down

After taking a brief hiatus from posting Alliance blog entries, I would like to bring your attention to some significant changes in Alliance leadership. Patrick D’Amelio, President and CEO of the Alliance for Education announced his resignation on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, taking effect on December 4, 2009. Patrick will be assuming the role of President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Puget Sound.

Alliance Board Chair, George Griffin assured the community that the Alliance is in a healthier position as a result of the Patrick’s great leadership which include making great strides in expanding community engagement, increasing college access, and improving teacher quality throughout the Seattle Public School System.

The Alliance Board has convened a search committee for a new President and CEO. And the hope is to find a new President and CEO by early February.

To read the press release on Patrick’s resignation, please visit http://www.alliance4ed.org/PatrickDAmelioResignationNov32009.pdf.

Although we at the Alliance are saddened by Patrick’s departure, the blog posts will continue because the Alliance’s mission -- to ensure every child in Seattle Public Schools achieve academic success – never ends.

We urge the entire community to continue blogging and using this site as a vehicle for public discourse on education issues. As Patrick mentioned in the first blog, “topics such as teacher quality, the achievement gap, student assignment, community schools, education reform, and equitable access to college” will continue to be a rich source of discussion. It is important that we get healthy participation from the entire community.

So, please, keep on blogging!!

Mark Yango, Director of Communications, AFE